


When

by Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)



Category: G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (2009)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-11
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-08 09:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1130726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Eternal%20Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"When" is all it is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eerian_sadow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/gifts).



> Written for Fandom Stocking 2013

When he thought she was dead, he felt like another piece of him had been cut away. As far as he knew, she had been down in the base when it was destroyed and even when her body hadn’t been recovered, he still felt her loss. There was no doubt who was responsible for the attack – nor who he blamed for her death. Stormshadow shouldn’t have still been alive, and yet he was and taunted him about taking away one more person that he loved. He was determined to make sure he was dead this time. For both of them.

 

When she thought he was dead, she didn’t think that she could draw another breath into her body that wasn’t wracked with pain. She couldn’t remember clearly what had happened when she was injured, only that almost everyone was dead and no one had expected her to wake up. She didn’t know how she was brought to the private hospital. There were a lot of questions that no one seemed to have answers to. She wasn’t as surprised as she should have been when her savior was revealed. How they managed to get her out of the rubble was unknown.

 

When he saw her again, he thought that he was hallucinating. It was possible that life he had led and all of the injuries would have left some kind of lasting damage to his mind, after all. A memory that broke loose to haunt him and make him feel an even deeper guilt for not protecting her like he had always silently promised to. She sat astride the motorcycle racing in front of them just like he always remembered her doing before; in perfect control of both the bike and the crossbow that she was using to make a hole.

 

When she saw him again, it was like the shadows around her suddenly had form. She hadn’t stopped thinking about him – hadn’t properly mourned him – but for his ghost to appear in the middle of a battle shook her more than she could afford. As he jumped from vehicle to vehicle swinging his katana, her heart almost stopped even as her breathing became more labored. This wasn’t the time to have a mental breakdown. There was too much to do and a band of terrorists to stop. If this was his ghost haunting her, she promised she’d mourn properly afterward.

 

When they came together in the aftermath of a near war, there was no doubt that they were absolutely real. She let tears fall that she hadn’t allowed to escape in all of the time before and he spoke her name after so many years of eternal silence. The emotions between them needing to be expressed; the misplaced grief needing to be released, they did what they had never dared to do in the open like this. As he lifted the bottom of his mask, her lips pressed against his fiercely and he vowed never to let her go again.


End file.
